Yesterday found me charring birch polypore for tinder. Charred birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus) makes a great tinder as I described in this post a couple of years ago all about using various fungus as tinder.
I found them on a dead birch a few months ago and left them to dry out. I’ve found that they char better once dried. The process is essentialy the same as for making charcloth, you just need to leave the tin on for longer, typically 20 – 30 minutes.
Once charred you can ignite using a variety of methods, including fire steels, traditional flint & steel, parabolic mirrors and magnifying lenses. And from there pop it into a tinder bundle.
So here’s a short video shot at our ancient woodland camp in Kent showing me charring birch polypore for tinder.
We teach how to prepare and use fungus, such as charring birch polypore for tinder, on our 2 Day & 5 Day Bushcraft Courses, the IOL Bushcraft Competency Course and also our 2 Day & 5 Day Survival Courses. You can see plenty of photos from all of these courses on our Facebook page.
